Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Egypt’s Brotherhood chief among 683 suspects sentenced to death

Egyptians react outside the courtroom in Egypt's southern province of
Minya after an Egyptian court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leader
Mohamed Badie and other alleged Islamists to death on April 28, 2014.

MINYA, Egypt

An
Egyptian court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and 682
other alleged Islamists to death today, a lawyer and prosecutor said,
after two brief sessions the defence partly boycotted.

The
same court in the southern province of Minya also reversed 492 of 529
death sentences it passed in March, commuting most of those to life in
prison.

The court, presided over by judge Said Youssef
Sabry, had sparked an international outcry with its initial sentencing
last month amid an extensive crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist
president Mohamed Morsy.

The crackdown has reached
secular leaning dissidents who supported Morsy’s overthrow but have
since turned on the army-installed regime.

In Cairo, a
court banned the April 6 youth movement that spearheaded the 2011
revolt against strongman Hosni Mubarak, following a complaint accusing
it of defaming Egypt and colluding with foreign parties.

In Minya, the judge is to confirm the death sentences on June 21.

Under
Egyptian law, death sentences are referred to the top Islamic scholar
for an advisory opinion before being ratified. A court may choose to
commute the sentences, which can later be challenged at an appeals
court.

Of the 683 sentenced on Monday, only about 50 are in custody. The others have a right to a retrial if they hand themselves in.

Monday’s hearing lasted just 10 minutes, said Khaled Elkomy, a defence lawyer who was in court.

The
verdict was the first against Badie, spiritual head of Morsy’s Muslim
Brotherhood, in the several trials he faces on various charges along
with Morsy himself and other Brotherhood leaders.

Several female relatives waiting outside the courtroom fainted on hearing news of the verdict.

“Where
is the justice?” others chanted. Some said family members had been
unjustly convicted or put on trial. “My son does not even pray, he does
not even know where the mosque is,” said one woman, whose son was among
the 529 sentenced to death in March.

Karima Fadl, the
mother of a man whose death sentence was commuted, said: “My son Khaled
received a life sentence. “It is not better than a death sentence. It is
still an injustice. He did nothing wrong.”

Those
sentenced on Monday were accused of involvement in the murder and
attempted murder of policemen in Minya province on August 14, the day
police killed hundreds of Morsy supporters in clashes in Cairo.

Defence
lawyers boycotted the last session, branding it “farcical” after the
mass death sentencing which the United Nations denounced as a breach of
international human rights law.

Lawyer Elkomy claims 60
percent of the 529 defendants, including teachers and some doctors,
have evidence that “proves they were not present the day they were
accused of attacking the Matay police station” in Minya, said the Avaaz
human rights group.

The government has defended the
court’s handling of the first mass death sentences, insisting the
sentences were passed only “after careful study” and were subject to
appeal.